Cultivating Wonder, Sparking Joy

Curiosity, energy, and a natural excitement for exploring.  Kindergartners were created uniquely to experience the world God created with wonder and enthusiasm.  Their early learning experiences should encourage and reinforce these natural tendencies as well as prepare them for a lifetime of joyful learning.

Kindergarten at Covenant welcomes these eager young learners into the classroom to begin building fundamental skills while encouraging their curiosity.  We guide them to ask good questions and train them to think deeply about each subject area.  Students discover new knowledge through movement, songs, jingles, and chants.  Through classroom discussions, quality literature, and devotionals, students gain wisdom to discern right from wrong and begin to understand their own role in the Great Conversation.

Learning in these early years sets the stage for structured educational experiences in the future.  Students gain foundational skills to help them think deeply, read widely, and write well.  Through systematic phonics instruction, hands-on experiences in science, and consistent and orderly practice in mathematics, these young learners grasp new concepts with eagerness and joy.  Kindergarten provides students with a preview of the many things they will learn and experience during their years in the classical Christian classrooms at Covenant and prepares them for the rigors of classical education along with a love for learning alongside their peers.  

Many parents are concerned about whether or not their child is prepared for kindergarten at Covenant.  We’re delighted to partner with parents as they seek to prepare their children to begin a Covenant education.  Preparation for kindergarten should be filled with joy and energy to excite both the mind and the body.

Kindergarten readiness begins with preparation at home in the early years.  These readiness skills can be acquired through play, interaction, exposure, and repetition. The following is a list of skills and behaviors to be working on with your child throughout the preschool years.

• Expose your child to colors and shapes and discuss how God uses them in our world. 
• Help your child explore the world with their hands through building and creating.
• Encourage your child to observe differences and similarities in sizes, shapes, and colors . 
• Give your child opportunities to practice with patterns and help them understand how pieces fit together.
• Enjoy listening to sounds with your child and help them learn to respond to sounds. 
• Engage your child by playing with words together through rhyming games and nursery rhymes.
• Listen to great stories together with lovely pictures to excite their minds for reading.
• Expose your child to chapter books and books without pictures to help develop creativity, teaching your child to form pictures in his or her mind.
• Encourage your child to use his or her  imagination through discussions, storytelling, and play.
• Help your child develop the ability to share and play with others. 
• Practice listening skills at home with your child.
• Build sequencing skills in your child by teaching him or her to complete multiple tasks in order.
• Encourage patience and stamina in your child to keep working at a task–especially when it is new or slightly difficult.
• Teach your child personal responsibility for belongings and for caring for his or her own bodily needs.
• Expose your child to numbers and the ability to recognize digits, count orally and count objects.
• Reinforce the recognition of letters and an awareness of their sounds and how sounds fit together to make words.

Joyfully incorporating these practices into your interactions with your children in their early years will help to prepare them well for the excitement and adventures to come in kindergarten at Covenant and the years beyond.

To learn more about our kindergarten program at Covenant, we invite you to click here.

About the Author: Mrs. Soehren is the kindergarten teacher at Covenant Classical School in Naperville, IL.